County note shelf
Roscommon County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Roscommon County. This shelf has 5 practical notes and 10 local stories.
15 notes
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- Money and taxes Good news on local income tax in Roscommon Roscommon County has no cities, so no local government here can tax wages — but Grayling, 15 miles up I-75, takes 0.5% from nonresidents who work inside its limits.
- History and culture St. Helen: a lumber town turned lake town (and the Bluegill Festival) St. Helen grew from a major lumber operation into an easygoing Lake St. Helen community with the Bluegill Festival.
- History and culture The village of Roscommon: county seat on the Au Sable Roscommon is the county-seat village on the South Branch of the Au Sable, with logging roots and the Michigan Firemen's Memorial.
- Outdoors Living on Lake St. Helen Lake St. Helen is Roscommon County's east-side all-sports lake, with legal lake levels and special assessments to ask about.
- History and culture Higgins Lake's other story: the nursery that helped replant Michigan The Higgins Lake Nursery and CCC Museum tells the conservation story behind the forests around Higgins Lake.
- Outdoors Living on Higgins Lake: deep, cold, and famously clear Higgins Lake is a deep, clear, premium lakefront market in Gerrish, Lyon, and Markey townships.
- History and culture Tip-Up Town USA: Houghton Lake's winter on the ice Tip-Up Town USA brings Houghton Lake's winter resort season onto the ice each January.
- Outdoors Living on Houghton Lake: Michigan's biggest inland lake Houghton Lake is Michigan's largest inland lake, a shallow year-round resort lake with sewer and lake-board details buyers should check.
- Outdoors The American Robin — and Michigan's Other Bird The cheerful robin has been Michigan's state bird since 1931 — but the Kirtland's warbler, which nests almost nowhere but Michigan, may be the most Michigan bird of all.
- Outdoors The Brook Trout Michigan's state fish is a jewel-colored native of cold, clean water — and a stand-in for the trout-fishing heritage that gave the country Trout Unlimited.
- History and culture The Eastern White Pine Michigan named the eastern white pine its state tree in 1955 — honoring the timber that built the state, and that the state nearly cut down to the last trunk.
- Outdoors Michigan's six scramble areas (and the Silver Lake rulebook) The open-riding playgrounds of Michigan off-roading — Silver Lake's dunes, Holly Oaks, The Mounds, St. Helen, Bull Gap, and Black Lake — and the extra rules each one layers on.
- Home and property Out in the township? Plan on a well and septic — and check them before you buy Roscommon County townships are buyer-beware for private wells and septic systems at sale.
- Money and taxes Buying in a township? Watch for special assessments on top of your taxes Michigan township buyers should check for special assessments that can add separate road, sewer, water, lighting, sidewalk, or drain charges.
- Money and taxes In Michigan, you get two property-tax bills a year — not one Most Michigan property owners get separate summer and winter tax bills, with local rules deciding what lands on each bill.